Highlights
The Treasury opens fiscal year 2018 with an October budget deficit of $63.2 billion, 37.9 percent larger than the $45.8 billion deficit in October last year. The larger deficit reflects an 11.6 percent increase versus October 2016 in outlays to $298.6 billion that outpaced a 6.2 percent increase in receipts to $235.3 billion.

Outlays were driven by a 14.6 percent rise in defense to $59.6 billion and a 21.6 percent year-on-year increase in net interest expenses to $28.6 billion. Medicare rose 7.7 percent year-on-year to $25.4 billion while outlays for social security rose 3.0 percent to $80.0 billion.

The bulk of the gain in total receipts came from individual income taxes which were up 5.1 percent compared to a year ago at $127.8 billion, and employment/retirement insurance, which rose 5.9 percent to $80.8 billion. High percentage (though much smaller in absolute terms) gains were seen in corporate tax receipts, which were up 63.8 percent year-on-year at $3.7 billion, while excise tax receipts increased by 30.8 percent to $7.5 billion.

Recent History Of This Indicator
The Treasury ended fiscal 2017 with a $665.7 deficit and a 13.7 percent increase from fiscal 2016. October's budget starts off fiscal 2018 with a $58.0 deficit the expectation.

Definition
The U.S. Treasury releases a monthly account of the surplus or deficit of the federal government. Changes in the budget balance reflect Federal policy on spending and taxation. The government's fiscal year begins in October.
Why Investors Care

The federal budget balance is not seasonally adjusted. Consequently, it is useful to compare the current month's budget deficit or surplus to the same month for a couple of years. Some months are known to have large surpluses because quarterly estimated tax payments are received by the government.Data Source: Haver Analytics